I thought some of you might find this interesting. If I were to teach a course on presidential history, I think the reading assignments would look something like this (Let me know if I should consider other speeches, or documents:

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@vcczar One I especially think is quite important, because it was completely ignored and the consequences are being and felt and suffered everywhere, both in and outside the U.S., was the line from Eisenhower's farewell speech to "avoid the rise of the military-industrial complex."

@vcczar One I especially think is quite important, because it was completely ignored and the consequences are being and felt and suffered everywhere, both in and outside the U.S., was the line from Eisenhower's farewell speech to "avoid the rise of the military-industrial complex."

Not sure if it is entirely relevant but, @vcczar, you should include several speeches from the 1924 Democratic convention to showcase the internal struggle the party had in either being socially liberal or conservative.

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@vcczar I notice the only two non-American author (both in the pre-Presidency period) who are included are Adam Smith and John Locke. Why not include other past authors who predate the United States, whose writings nonetheless impacted, sometimes quite overtly, the U.S. founding fathers, such as Plato (who coined the word and concept of a "Republic" in the first place), Marcus Aurelius, one of the biggest ideological founders of the Roman Republic and it's legal and constitutional structure, Montesque (who first came up with the idea of separation of government powers to prevent abuse by said government upon it's citizens), George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, one of the principal forces in the English Parliament behind the assembling, codifying, and formalizing of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 from several previous documents made as concessions by several previous monarchs (although Halifax was heavily influenced by Locke), including the then-unprecedented concept that the head-of-state of a nation could be removed from tenure for violating these rights, as his significant part in the Glorious Revelation of the same year showed. These are some notable and obvious influences on the Founding Fathers who were not American and predated the United States as a nation other than Smith and Locke. I can probably dig up some more.

Not sure if it is entirely relevant but, @vcczar, you should include several speeches from the 1924 Democratic convention to showcase the internal struggle the party had in either being socially liberal or conservative.

@vcczar I notice the only two non-American author (both in the pre-Presidency period) who are included are Adam Smith and John Locke. Why not include other past authors who predate the United States, whose writings nonetheless impacted, sometimes quite overtly, the U.S. founding fathers, such as Plato (who coined the word and concept of a "Republic" in the first place), Marcus Aurelius, one of the biggest ideological founders of the Roman Republic and it's legal and constitutional structure, Montesque (who first came up with the idea of separation of government powers to prevent abuse by said government upon it's citizens), George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, one of the principal forces in the English Parliament behind the assembling, codifying, and formalizing of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 from several previous documents made as concessions by several previous monarchs (although Halifax was heavily influenced by Locke), including the then-unprecedented concept that the head-of-state of a nation could be removed from tenure for violating these rights, as his significant part in the Glorious Revelation of the same year showed. These are some notable and obvious influences on the Founding Fathers who were not American and predated the United States as a nation other than Smith and Locke. I can probably dig up some more.

Very good suggestions. I had to limit those I used. However, I think I should include some non-American speeches or excerpts of texts/documents during different eras of the presidency. For instance, GB abolitionists, GB Reform law, French Rev Rights of Man, Khruschchev "We will bury you" speech, etc.